Soderlund 1 Megan Soderlund 3-31-14 Case Study

This case study is about Will Johnson, a thirteen year-old 8th grader. He is a male Caucasian whose academic achievement has been low for a few years. He has been identified as an Exceptional Learning Study at this time, and has had issues with school-work for a long while. He has received private tutoring and his school has been quite accommodating and helpful to his needs. Wills grades in schools have been low, but he has never had to repeat a grade level. A neurological test done in 2010 proved that Wills verbal scores were high and his comprehension scores were low. There were problems present in his visual motor, processing, and visual sequencing skills. He was identified as having better scores in reading and language than with math, writing, and numerical operations. Students with an Exceptional Learning Need can approach school differently than an individual without an ELN. Learning about what a few of these signs are for an ELN child can help them be accommodated in their situation. Some characteristics that we have learned about in class have only a few similarities with Wills situation. One that can be heavily touched on is learning styles. All individuals learn in various ways. Some are visual learners, others are auditory, and some may be kinesthetic or logical and mathematical. This could be very helpful to a student like Will. Not knowing what learning disability he has, there is a chance that one specific way of learning may click for him. Knowing that his test scores showed his visual skills were poor, he may need to stay away from a visual type of learning. He had better linguistic skills, but had trouble comprehending what he was reading. Wills motor skills were observed as poor which most likely causes his bad handwriting. His trouble following directions and fixing

Soderlund 2 mistakes, as well as all of the other given information, gives Will the possibility of being an ELN child. The way these issues in school may impact the individual can span across many parts of his life. Having an ELN effects both academics in and out of school. Homework can be hard to do on your own and without extra help, it may not get done. Education in school could be difficult because the classroom environment demands the same from every student within the same time frame. Will may need things to be explained more than once or for the teacher to talk slower. Sometimes the teacher expects the same out of an ELN as another student regardless of the help they need, or the teacher may not have time to be so accommodating. This could make a big impact on the students perception of school and their own academic success. On a day-to-day basis, even the thought of going to school may make an ELN student feel very defeated. Also being behind in school may cause some self-confidence issues. This could also lead into issues with family, friends and peers in general. Because of his slower visual processing, Will might not be picking up on cues from friends or important parts of a presentation in class. The study reported that Will was slow at making friends. This may be because he is lacking a social ability or it may mean that Wills trouble learning has inhibited some of these qualities. Concerning the family, strain can spur from an exceptional students learning. Wills performance in school could cause arguments between his parents and cause tension in their already rocky relationship. Family also adds a lot of pressure to getting good grades, and they are usually wanting you to succeed in school. Speaking further about Wills family, his parents are a divorced couple. His mother was 18 when he was born and Wills father was 25. His father and mother are no longer together and his father has a hard time keeping a job. His father has a history of being violent with both Will

Soderlund 3 and his mother. Mrs. Johnson has a history of depression in the family, which may affect Will. The familys involvement with their students seems sort of disconnected. His mom gives him a lot of outside help, tutors, practices, and testing. The familys role in Wills development is unclear, but his parents are aware of his difficulties. Also the fathers abuse could have negatively affected the social growth of Will because of his fluctuating and harmful home environment. The home environment effects his social development by making opening up to others potentially difficult. Cognitive development can be delayed as his home lacked consistency and safety. Emotional development was effected by this as well but language development doesnt seem to have been effected. Medications have the possibility of affecting Will; he was taking an unnamed medicine during one of his testing periods. He also uses marijuana which is said to be a big concern in this case. Wills behavior problems include a possible depression because of his familys history with depression. He also gets very anxious, has trouble sleeping, and feels tension often. The study states that Will seeks attention and acts immature and nave. These types of behaviors are pretty typical however with a student of his age. Middle school often prompts these behaviors. As an ELN student, one is given more individual attention. However Will gets easily frustrated, stressed, certainly distracted. The culture Will is surrounded by may not help with his anxiety, given that his dad was abusive and his parents are separated. The fact that the case reported that he was anxious a few times could be alluding to an anxiety disorder. These behaviors are due, in the most part, to things like worrying about his parents divorce. Another is the type of culture we now live in. Attracting attention to oneself is something people do to boost their confidence, which Will may or may not need for himself.

Soderlund 4 To give even further background of Will, he has always spoken English. He comes from a family in an unknown location and I am assuming his family is middle class. Wills ELN can be treated differently based on the cultural environment he is surrounded by. Coming from a home without two parents, he may not be receiving all of the verbal praise and family support he needs to succeed. His communication with either parent can be different because they dont live together and his mothers thoughts and values may differ from his fathers. Also his social status can play into what kind of assistance he receives. Will has been given help throughout the years so that is not inhibited by his social status. All of this can manifest into Will having trouble interacting with others and keeping his emotions in check. Low self-confidence can happen because of his low test scores too. His culture day-to-day is one where his parents are divorced and only one has an income in additionto the father having a history of abuse. This can affect his learning if he gives himself low self-worth. He struggles with working in groups and gets frustrated so he wont fix mistakes he makes with his schoolwork. For example, if Wills socio-economic status affected where we went to school, a lower income school may not be able to give Will a one-on-one tutor. Additionally, Will may not have had the money to do all the academic and behavioral tests to determine what his specific learning disability is. Another example is a family member may not be communicating with each other what is needed for Will to succeed. This example is entirely possible in Wills situation. The amount of resources Will can use to better his learning are vast. Specific to ELN is the use of assistive technology. I believe that this would be beneficial to Will. Using a tool like accessibility software would be very helpful because it can adjust technology systems to better suit the individuals need. The speed of a program could be slowed down so Will had more time to verbally process what is going on. This would assist in any online education. Creating

Soderlund 5 alternative forms of communication may help Will, because this can turn pictures into words making visual cognition into a verbal memory. These programs usually cost a lot of money if research supports them, however using one is feasible because Will can afford the extra help of a tutor, so he would hopefully have access to assistive technology. The classroom environment being well suited to Will would help his learning as well. A place without distractions would be a good place to start, as well as a person that serves as additional assistance in the classroom. Types of ELNs that Will could have based on this case study can vary. Some common ones are ADHD, ADD, Obsessive Compulsive disorder, or Bipolar disorder that could potentially apply to him. Attention deficit disorder makes it hard to stay on task and can lead to bad grades and anxiety. These characteristics seem to apply to Will. Wills ELN came to light through continued difficulties in school. Although Will was passing, his ability to learn and create positive results with his grades never improved. In fact, some of his test scores have gone down. Another major inhibitor in his learning is the fact that he is easily distracted and has trouble staying focused on one task. His one-on-one tutoring gives him a less distracting place to concentrate. Will can cope with these challenges by knowing what works best for him. He lacks motivation because it is difficult for him to just sit down and complete a task. Teachers, peers, and parents can deal with these challenges with consistent support and adjustment. Teachers, knowing of Wills ELN, can maybe have an adult conversation with him about what is working best for him. Also, keeping the class on their toes and interested will keep someone like Will who has difficulty concentrating engaged. Peers will hopefully keep an open mind about Wills learning struggles. Knowing it is more difficult to pay attention and therefore absorb the information, makes school more difficult for Will in general.

Soderlund 6 His parents can give him an area dedicated to homework at home without distractions and keeping the one-on-one help would be beneficial. Overall, the distractions, pace, and fixed ways of learning are hindering Will. Being surrounded by distracting things everywhere in a classroom can cause concentrating to be very difficult. The pace the teacher moves through the content may be too fast for Will because of these distractions. Keeping interesting content but giving it time to absorb wouldnt hinder him and could be beneficial. Having information shown in strictly one medium doesnt help Will either. The classroom will be full of learners of different kinds. Lecturing about a power point but then posting it online later helps a few types of learning. Doing an activity that is hands-on or involves physical activity can get people up and moving and make whatever the students are learning about more memorable. What supports Wills development is having a personal tutor. They can work together to find out what is the best way to work and really emphasize what is being taught in school. Also addressing the issue of possible depression and anxiety could help Will a lot as well. He can be counseled or given medicine that may help with focus. Words and writing are his strong suit so giving projects with multiple ways of portraying the answers could give Will the chance to really learn about a topic because it is how he learns best. After carefully examining the case study and all of its potential outcomes, I have come to the conclusion that Will has symptoms similar to Attention Deficit Disorder. I came to this inference when seeing the information about Wills inability to sustain his interests and concentration and his possible anxiety. ADD is a learning disability where the individual is easily distracted and this causes issues in many aspects of their life. Will has trouble focusing and this results in poor grades and he may be anxious because of this. The social aspect plays into the possibility of ADD because it is harder for Will to make friends. His parents situation

Soderlund 7 can add even more anxiety. Overall, the ELN that I believe Will portrays the most is ADD and I believe he can work through it with further assistance at school and at home to create a learning environment that best suits him. Understanding his struggles but learning about what works best for his learning, Will can move forward as an ELN student and cherish steps he makes towards positive progress.